The Sun is composed of several layers, each with distinct temperature, pressure, and physical behaviour. Understanding these layers explains how energy produced in the deep interior travels outward and eventually reaches Earth. The innermost region is the core. It is the hottest and densest part of the Sun, with temperatures approaching fifteen million Kelvin and pressures so immense that hydrogen nuclei are forced to fuse. The density here is more than a hundred times that of water, and the matter exists in the form of an extremely energized plasma. The conditions in the core are unlike anything we can reproduce on Earth, which is why the Sun becomes such an important natural laboratory for studying nuclear fusion. Surrounding the core is the radiative zone. In this layer, energy travels outward as radiation rather than through physical movement of plasma. Photons generated in the core scatter thousands of times inside the radiative zone, being absorbed and re-emitted by particles continuously. Because of this extremely slow diffusion process, a photon may take anywhere from ten thousand to several million years to travel through this region. The temperature gradually drops from several million Kelvin near the core to about two million Kelvin near the outer edge of the zone.
Full document is available for free to download, prepared by Kriti – Team MacroEdTech.
